Strengthening implementation of home-based records for maternal, newborn and child health: a guide for country programme managers

The World Health Organization recommends the use of home-based records as a complement to facility-based records for the care of pregnant women, mothers, newborns and children in order to improve care seeking behaviours, men’s involvement and support in the household, maternal and child home care practices, infant and child feeding, and communication between health workers and women, parents and caregivers.

Despite the wide use of home-based records, implementation challenges persist, such as stock-outs, incorrect use of home-based records by health workers or low retention by women, parents and caregivers that impede the home-based record’s potential.

The guide was developed in response to the implementation issues and seeks to provide decision-making tools and activities, links to existing resources and examples from countries that can be used to strengthen processes for planning, design, implementation and monitoring of home-based records.